photojournalism, documentary film and social art

Tag Archives: traditions

On the Costa Brava of Spain in the town of Arenya d’Empordà lies an abandoned House, complete with a high tower filled with broken windows.

Local residents claim it was the house of a great fascist family who one day were destroyed by the same people they dominated. Apparently it belonged to a famous ballet dancer and was wrecked and ruined by the Franco fascist regime in 1968.

Mark Abouzeid took these photos in between takes of music videos being recorded in the Haunted House by Icelandic solo-artist, Oddur.

In 1992 Sultan Qaboos directed that his country of Oman should have a Grand Mosque.

The Mosque is built from 300,000 tonnes of Indian sandstone. The main musalla (prayer hall) is square (external dimensions 74.4 x 74.4 metres) with a central dome rising to a height of fifty metres above the floor. The dome and the main minaret (90 metres) and four flanking minarets (45.5 metres) are the mosque’s chief visual features.

The main musalla can hold over 6,500 worshippers, while the women’s musalla can accommodate 750 worshipers. The outer paved ground can hold 8,000 worshipers and there is additional space available in the interior courtyard and the passageways, making a total capacity of up to 20,000 worshipers. (Wikipedia)

How do you capture the entire character of a culture that has no written record, has lived for centuries in relative isolation and exists in complete harmony with one of the world’s most extreme environments?

Over the past few weeks, much has been said about the latest bid by archaeologists, government officials and tourism experts to have Wadi Rum admitted to a prestigious group of natural heritage sites named UNESCO.

There can be little question that the protected zone’s unique landscapes, natural rock formations, flora and fauna justify warrant inclusion on the list.

That it remains in question whether the bid should be a single site application or mixed site, including cultural and environmental importance, is surprising.

“When a child is born, the father goes into the desert in search of the largest scorpion he can find. The eldest woman slowly cooks the animal in a pan over an open fire until it melts like butter. This salve is massaged into the skin of the baby. The baby gets sick as a consequence of the scorpion venom but not enough to do it harm. I was bitten by a scorpion a few years ago and nothing happened. This is one of the traditional medicines of our people that is being lost.” Attayak

Mark Abouzeid announced, today, the founding of the Bedouin Heritage Project. Our goal is to help realize the dream set forth by UNESCO in helping safeguard and protect Intangible Cultural heritages, in this case the Bedouin’s of Jordan’s Wadi Rum Protected Zone.